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Tales of fishing outings, all true!

* Merced River - July
Marla Lytle and Sophia Zadubera fished the Merced and in Yosemite Park in July. Despite the 95 degree weather we managed to catch a few in an evening hatch of Mayflies including Sophia's lip. Marla caught a rainbow on the South fork using a spider, Sophia caught a 15" rainbow in the park high sticking a spider around a boulder which emptied into a pool. We ended our adventure at a private pond on our friends property where we were rewarded with a few blue gill and a cool dip in their pool. Best of all was the many laughs we shared. Priceless. - Marla Lytle

* Summer in the Rocky Mountains
John and I like to be on the move, a new spot almost every day. I would bore you miserably to give you a blow-by-blow account, so here are a few highlights:
Green River below Fontanelle Dam, Wyoming - This is a big river with good-sized feisty trout that will give you a run for your money. It was good to us.
East Newton, Wyoming - In late June
Just outside the town of Cody, this trophy trout lake offers the locals and travelers like us a chance of some big guys. It's primarily a float tube lake. We only caught a few but fishing the sedge hatch with a Goddard caddis after sunset was exciting. The large sedges were scooting all over the water, so we followed suit with our flies and WHAM!
Gallatin River, inside Yellowstone Park - early July
We had high hopes, the fishing reports were very good, the water level perfect, water temperature just right, but unfortunately, the big black deer flies were biting way better than the fish, leaving welts that stung and itched.
Beartooth Plateau, Wyoming - early July
Having run from the heat we found ourselves on the Beartooth Plateau above 10,000 feet. It was very scenic, and there were numerous thunderstorms. We walked the lake and fished dry flies to eager cutthroat and rainbows up to about 12 inches.
Bighorn River Drainage, Wyoming - mid July
Outstanding stream fishing for cutthroats up to 17 inches, one after another, after another. It was a challenge due to thunderstorms that muddied the stream frequently. We'd cross the large stream, one that requires a wading staff, only to find that we'd have to use "footing by Braille," after a thunderstorm upstream, then we'd have to cross again.
South fork of the Snake River area - late July
We just missed the outstanding evening dry fly hatches in the South Fork, but stream fishing was very good for cutthroats again.
Big Hole River, Montana - early August
What a treat, really good fishing with spruce moths. Remember those in our fly tying class? Make more, they are working everywhere. - John & Elaine Cook, still on the road.
P.S. This are is usually noted for its BIG SKY and beautiful vistas. Well, not this summer. The multiple fires have filled the sky with smoke very frequently. The first was West Yellowstone, at the end of June, where our favorite campground was evacuated. They have continued, with more evacuations where we wish to fish. Oh, wellÉtight lines to all!

* Little Truckee River - August 4th
John Nesheim and Ron Wiebe fished the Little Truckee on August 4 with a little pleasant walk through the upper meadow section. Ron got one hit on a Burk's Hopper drifted in an eddy along a seam of a hole under a bush. Our surprise was spotting a 20 inch plus torpedo meandering upstream in calm water next to the bank we were walking. We had watched guides and cars of others leave a few hours earlier. Lesson: be prepared for anything at any time. Fish with confidence, it brings results. As we drove to camp we concluded what others we met had observed: the Tahoe Reno area is getting pounded. A veteran from Salinas Valley Fly Fishers had done the Truckee River with zero results in spite of teaming up with one of the best guides for that river. Full time residents are moving in regularly. More and more people are fishing local waters aggressively. We spotted two vans pull up and out emptied 12 kids with dads, all running to go fishing. Fun, for them of course. But there are calmer waters farther away. Lesson: plan your venues carefully these days. - John Nesheim

* Fall River August 2-6
Jim Livingston, Duwayne Norton and our sons and a friend held our annual belated Father's Day fishout at the Fall River this year. There were 8 of us. We stayed at the Redding Fly Shop house on the River. Accommodations were stellar and we had a great time.
There are no riffles in the Fall River and it meanders slowly through one of the most scenic valleys in the state. Wild rice and cattle are the crops for this area. Wildlife is everywhere and especially visible from the river; waterfowl, river otters, birds of prey, muskrats, herons.
All sane fishing on the Fall River is done with boats having some sort of propulsion, usually a small gas operated outboard with an electric motor and our lodging came with 3 such boats plus one of our own. Some people try float tubes but they are a very distant second choice.
Stealth is the name of the game. Typically the fish are big, 14 inches and above and they must be approached carefully. August is a challenge. The water temperature from this spring fed river was 59 degrees but these fish have seen it all by then so the regular impulse items don't work too well. You have to be creative. The best results we could muster were fishing nymphs on floating and intermediate lines with 12 foot+ 5x leaders; long casts quartering down stream and letting the fly hang before stripping it back. Most of the fish we caught this way would bite on the strip and were 9 to 14 inches. I did manage a 17-3/4 inch fish, my biggest for the trip, on a parachute Adams the first day but I would soon find out that was just dumb luck since I fished that same Adams sometimes over rising fish with only marginal results. Perhaps the fact that there were very few hatches had something to do with this as well. I heard in passing from a fisherman that the PMD's were no longer as prolific as they once were on the Fall.
There we were, trying to figure it out, and low and behold, fishing together down river late one evening a very nice hex hatch occurs. Somewhat unusual for this time of the year? I don't know but I'm guessing it's a well-kept secret. As luck would have it we were all prepared, having hexes in all forms. We were getting savage takes but we landed only a few fish of modest size having broken off on all of the larger ones. Buck fever I guess. Over the course of the days, we noticed even during bright light conditions occasional hexes drifting by drying their wings. From then on at least one person had a hex pattern on one of their rods. One of the nice things about fishing from a boat was that we all had multiple rods rigged and ready to use.
Later in the trip I was fishing with Duwayne in a 12 knot wind. I was driving, setting up Duwayne to cast to the undercuts along the bank as we drifted down stream. Duwayne had on a hex and he hooked the largest brown I have seen to date on the Fall River. Did that brown think that hex was a grasshopper blown into the river? You had to be creative.
For about $100 per day per person if you cook your own meals you can have a great place to stay, a boat and access to this great fishery. We have already booked our trip for next year and it's going to be the Fall River again.
As we were driving down the gravel road our house was on headed for home my son Chris and I saw 3 deer, big deer, resting in the shade of one of the houses. They were all in velvet with multiple branching sets of horns. They watched us intently as we drove by but did not spook. A perfect end. - Harry Petrakis

* Crowley Lake, August 9-12
Fished Crowley with some friends who were entered in the First Annual Stillwater Classic Tournament, August 11, a new tournament that raised over $10,000.00 to populate the lake with brown trout (due to ongoing problems with the diminishing number of fish that DFG is able to plant). Water fairly warm, up to 71 at end of day, so fish holding in McGee channel or Owens channel. Some good fishing, but mostly slow. I did manage two nice fish: 21 and 17 in rainbows, midging out in my tube.
Late July/early August
DFG dumped a load of 11-13 inch fish from the local hatchery that is tainted with mud snails (so Crowley is one of the few areas that could take these fish). They are already fat and feisty and will be 12-15 inches by the end of Sept. Crowley looks like the Crowley of old. Water dropping quickly - about one foot per week. There was a 100 yard hike out to McGee bay. All bays at 6-Bays are now reachable and will be more so by end of September. Streams very low - already look like end of Sept conditions. - Betty Rentz

* Rocky Ridge Ranch, Portland, OR - August
Since my son has moved to Portland, we have been both looking for new fisheries up there. Last month, we visited him, and we both float-tubed private farm ponds on Rocky Ridge Ranch, two hours from Portland. This Ranch was featured in Northwest Flyfishing Magazine a few months back. It was warm, but overcast and the fishing was OK. We both got about 30 fish between us, in the 12 to 18 inch class. We caught Rainbows mostly...but we did catch some unusual trout. These fish were mostly white with a very yellow back and pinkish gill areas, not unlike cut-throat markings. At first, we thought it was an albino rainbow, a genetic misfit. But after we caught a few more, we knew there was something else going on. After the day, We asked the owner, and he said they were "Eastern Goldens" and got the eggs from the East coast, and a friend hatched them for him. Anyone ever hear of those?? They were basically white trout without any color or markings. I don't know if this was BS, but we got a few pictures of these fish. If anyone could verify this "White Eastern Golden" or what's going on, please let me know. We have some pictures of these trout, if anyone wants to see them. I have fished for 30 years, and never have seen or heard of these animals. - Jim Otis

* Yellowstone River - mid-August
Last week I flew into Livingston Montana for the yearly Dan Bailey sales meeting. San Jose up to Seattle, Seattle to Butte and Butte on to Bozeman. My comfort level while flying was put to the test on the flight from Butte to Bozeman as we were all packed into what I thought may have been a Wright Bros. experimental prop 16-seater. Our approach to Bozeman reminded me of my days as a kid flying a kite. The plane literally wafted to a landing. On the leg of the flight from Seattle to Butte we were able to see the fires that were raging in western Montana. Knowing that there were fly club members in that area I said a silent prayer for their safety as well as for the pilot as the plane seemed to drop about 30 feet. About that time I was commiserating with the sports announcer, John Madden for his "Drive Only" approach to getting from point A to point B.
On the groud at last in Bozeman visibility was only a couple hundred of yards. I learned that there were3 new fires between West Yellowstone and the Bozeman/Livingston region that were providing this smoke. My sinuses immediately stuffed and my eyes began to water in what was to be the norm for my entire stay. Dinner with all the Bailey staff that night and meetings all the next day. Then on the morning of my 2nd day there we were on the waterconducting field trials with all the new product introduced the day before. Life is hard.
My guide on the Yellowstone River that day was non other than the owner of Dan Bailey - Dan's son, John Bailey. John had us hop in his newly finished custom,wood drift boat that was considered the Pegasus of drift boats. Swift and light as a feather this boat was unreal. Probably the cost of construction was unreal as well. Anyway, there I was floating down this fabled river and still unable to see more than a few hundred yards. John warned that the fire smokewas going to put the fish down and he turned out to be partially correct. Gear consisted of a 5 # rod and matching floating line with 4 #, 9' leader and 5x tippet. Now I have never landed a trout using a hopper pattern so this was to be a historical float for me.
John explained that the trout were keying on the grasshoppers that teemed along the river banks. He wasn't kidding. Even the dense smoke didn't diminish the trout's hunger for the hoppers as fish after fish came to the net. The Texa rep in the bow position landed a 5lb rainbow right out of the chute. I was spanked by a realy big brown who wrapped my line around a deep boulder, but managed to save face on a nice rainbow that displayed his appetite for winged insects with a mighty take.
Did the new Bailey products perform well? Can't recall as I was too busy catching Yellowstone smoky trout.

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